The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2006, Page 35

Vol. 60 #2
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
77
ages that were sent since they didn’t know
what they were. When her sister made it
for them they were really pleased with
this newly discovered food.
My grandmother has several fond
memories of her childhood. Saturday
mornings she would go to the local the-
ater for the Saturday Morning Fun Show.
You’d go in the morning to watch a serial
of some sort, then before the main show,
there would be a contest for the kids up
on stage. It was a lot of fun and the whole
thing only cost a quarter. If you wanted
to buy candy for the show you only had
to pay a nickel and you could get a large
bag of penny candies.
Water was delivered in a barrel and
you had to be very careful about wasting
it. On Sunday evenings the whole family
would bathe. They’d start with my
grandmother, since she was the youngest,
and end with her father. In the winter
they brought snow in from outside and
heated it on the wood fire. When every-
body was done washing the water would
go outside and be dumped in the garden.
My grandmother had many different
jobs while she lived in Flin Flon. During
her last year in school she worked at a
confectionary called Freedmons. She’d
serve milkshakes, sundaes, French fries,
steaks, and burgers. When she finished
school she worked at a store in Bakers
Narrows, which was a campground. This
was where she met my grandfather,
Phillip Einarson. She also worked at Sears
and as a receptionist for a clinic before she
got pregnant. She had four children in
total. Later she taught herself to decorate
wedding cakes and found work as a cake
decorator and as a guard for the RCMP.
In 1969 Prince Charles was on tour
and came to Flin Flon. The men and
women of the Royal Canadian Legion did
a parade march for him before he came to
review the troops. Since her father was
part of the Dutch army stationed in
Guelph he had different markings on his
uniform. When Prince Charles saw these
he came over to ask him about them.
In 1986 my grandfather was trans-
ferred to Nelson BC where he worked as
a district manager for Sears. They still live
there now, although they still go back to
Flin Flon to visit old friends.
All in all, my grandmother says that
Flin Flon hasn’t really changed in the last
few years and it isn’t really much different
than before. The city is, of course, much
larger than it was when she was growing
up, and there are a lot more people living
there now.
I ended up learning a lot of things that
I didn’t know previously. I learned about
my family as well as what was happening
the same time that my grandmother was
growing up.
When I was young I went with my
parents to visit some family up in Flin
Flon. But the only thing I really remem-
bered about it was how rocky everything
was and the Flin Flon Stack (apparently
one of the tallest free standing structures
in western Canada). I had no idea the
kinds of things that had happened in Flin
Flon's past, nor did I really care. But talk-
ing to my grandmother has given me a
3^voyiA)ya£d^xyri (2arte Gunter
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